This was one of 4 Anvil shows happening this week in Ontario. On Friday night they played The Rockpile in Western Toronto, and last night they played The Rockpile East in Eastern Toronto. These venues seem to do that a lot; book a band twice for Friday and Saturday, and I think it's great.

I got there around 9:45 as I heard that the second band was going on around then and there were 4 total. This was honestly the worst promoted show I've ever seen, with little to no info about who the opening bands were, and no set time info beyond one of the band members telling me when they went on when I asked when Anvil went on.

Mortal Fear was the first band I saw and they were ok. They were kind of like power/thrash/heavy. Decent stuff, but nothing I'd have to listen to again.

Up next were Caym, which features Robb Reiner's son in the band. Their first song made me think they were a death/thrash band, but then all this groove showed up in their second track. Definitely not my thing. They did a 1 minute cover of Winged Assassins for some reason.

Finally, around 11:30, Anvil hit the stage and played for just over 90 minutes. I had seen Anvil four times before, but this was the first headlining set. They busted out quite a few songs I've never heard them play before (School Love and Winged Assassins were the highlight!). I somewhat expected them to ignore most of their catalogue, but I was genuinely surprised that they didn't play anything from any album between 1987-2004. The only song I've heard before from that era is White Rhino, which they've permanently replaced with Swing Thing as Robb's drum solo. It's a bit disappointing, but it is definitely impressive that they play so many new songs to support their newest record. All 4 times I had seen them had been supporting Juggernaut of Justice, and they switched up the songs they played from that album as well. Edit: I found the prior night's set and it is identical except that we got Mankind Machine instead of Forged in Fire. Source: Setlist.fm

March of the Crabs
666
School Love
Badass Rock 'n' Roll
Winged Assassins
On Fire
This Is Thirteen
Mothra
Thumb Hang
Through With You
Swing Thing
Hope in Hell
Eat Your Words
Metal on Metal
MankinD Machine
Running

I was really hoping for either Shadow Zone or Free As The Wind, but overall, it's still a pretty killer set for someone who enjoys their two newest albums quite a bit.

justinm4bama

10-20-2013, 09:54 AM

Good review man. I've only seen Anvil once and would love to see them again. Do you know if they have any touring plans coming up?

Spiner202

10-20-2013, 10:48 AM

Good review man. I've only seen Anvil once and would love to see them again. Do you know if they have any touring plans coming up?

They're going to Brazil soon, but I don't know of any touring besides that. They're kind of weird, because they haven't really headlined all that much since getting popular. They seem to get great support slots (Metallica, Alice Cooper, AC/DC), but I don't know if they've done a proper headlining tour in the US since the movie.

Onioner

10-20-2013, 11:28 AM

I was really hoping for either Shadow Zone or Free As The Wind, but overall, it's still a pretty killer set for someone who enjoys their two newest albums quite a bit.

I would cry tears of joy if they busted out Free as the Wind or Shadow Zone. I remember at the SF show in 2010 and the LA show in 2012 everyone was chanting for Free as the Wind.

Also, Anvil have done 3 US headlining legs since the movie I believe. They did a run in February 2010, then they did two tours after Juggernaut of Justice came out, one in October 2011 then another in like February 2012. I'll be amazed if they can book another US tour, I'm sure it can't be that lucrative.

dcmetal108

10-20-2013, 06:03 PM

How shitty was the turnout?

Spiner202

10-20-2013, 06:09 PM

How shitty was the turnout?

Better than I expected. I'm terrible at judging crowds, but maybe a couple hundred people? I have to imagine that they made money on that show because all of the openers were no-namers, there were no travel costs, and they still managed that turnout with another show that was 40 minutes away the night before.